Lena Willikens

Nothing trains a DJ more than a long lasting residency. A truism that the Cologne based musician and DJ Lena Willikens always proves when she spins her vinyl. Since more then five years, she has been in charge of long and sweaty Friday night parties at Düsseldorf’s free-spirited club/bar Salon Des Amateurs.

As a DJ, radio broadcaster and producer, Lena is never committed to one style, all is welcome as long as it is twisted the in a one-of-a-kind way. As a producer she arranged a very special ghost wave track “High Holes“, that was released by the Düsseldorf based label Slowboy Records via the vinyl only sampler "Kingii” in 2012. Early 2015 she released her first solo EP “Phantom Delia” on Cómeme. Therefore she produced six mystique tracks between droning EBM, ghost-house and no-wavish outernational grooves.

The same sonic approach to music is significant for Lenas live performances in the name of film, a thing she recently added to her artistic catalogue. As a debut she prepared an impressive soundtrack to the Japanese movie “Japanese Girls from the Harbour” for the LiveSoundtrack Festival in Barcelona. Generated with a set-up of Theremin (trained in her former band Titanoboa) effects, loop pedal and turntables, the result was a partly spooky, partly melancholic atmosphere, fitting the dramatic and depressing aethetic of the movie. Definitly a thing we will see more often from Lena Willikens in the future.

Not only in her productions, also when she spins records Lena likes to let her self go in the name of dance and free thought. Her unforeseeable selections are pooling obscure proto-techno, jacking spirits, industrial boogie, synthesized disco, raw house and other outernational rhythms. So far she cheered clubs like Golden Pudel/Hamburg, Corsica Studios/London, Panoramabar/ Berlin, festivals like Nachtdigital or Nuits Sonores and toured through UK, Spain, East Europe, South and recently North America. Wherever she performed she surprised the folks and left them amazed about how expanded a crowd can let go and how far a DJ can move a dancefloor into unknown and bizarre spheres that stay catchy, while being edgy.